We have now advanced up this rugged path about half a mile from the highway we have mentioned, and discovered a light which will guide us to our destination.

As we approach the house the people are increasing in point of numbers; but still their conversation is marked by the same strange and peculiar character.

Perhaps the solemn depth of their voices gains something by the ominous aspect of the sky; but, be this as it may, the feeling which it occasions fills one with a different and distinct sense of discomfort.
We ourselves feel it, and it is not surprising; for, along this wild and rugged path of darkness, we are conducting the reader to the wake of a murderer.

We have now arrived within fifty yards of the house, which, however, we cannot see, for nothing but a solitary light is visible.
But, lo! a flash of lightning! and there for a moment is the whole rugged and savage scenery revealed.

The huge, pointed mountains, the dreary wastes, the wild, still glens, the naked hills of granite, and the tremendous piles of rocks, ready, one would think, to crash down from the positions where they seem to hang, if only assailed by a strong gale of wind--these objects, we say, were fearful and startling in themselves; but the sensations which they produced were nothing in comparison with the sight of an unpainted deal coffin which stood near the door, against the side wall of the house.